Approaches to Politics

Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Translated by Ivon Owen, and Preface written by Jacques Hebert Foreword and Introduction by Ramsay Cook

Description

"Society is made for man; if it serves him badly he is entitled to overthrow it" -Pierre Elliott Trudeau

No man played a more prominent role in modern Canadian political life than Pierre Elliott Trudeau. He was loved, he was hated, but most of all, he mattered.

Trudeau burst like a comet onto the federal political scene, becoming Canada's fifteenth prime minister in 1968. But as this collection of essays from the 1950s clearly shows, Trudeau had thought long and hard about the fundamental principles of government and politics before gaining the national spotlight. Approaches to Politics is an essential introduction both to the political philosophy of Pierre Trudeau and to the eternal principles underlying democracy-a book as relevant and readable today as when it was first published four decades ago.

This edition includes a new foreword by noted historian Ramsay Cook, as well as Cook's original introductory essay and a prefatory note by Jacques Hebert.

Approaches to Politics

Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Translated by Ivon Owen, and Preface written by Jacques Hebert Foreword and Introduction by Ramsay Cook

Table of Contents

Foreword to the Wynford Edition, Ramsay CookIntroduction, Ramsay CookPrefatory Note, Jacques Hébert1. Government by Mediocrities2. When Madmen Think They are Ministers and MPs3. To Prevent Sedition...4. The Just Man Must Go to Prison...5. Must the Tyrant be Assassinated?6. Obedience--But to Whom?7. Undermining the Majesty of the State8. The Election9. A State Made to Measure10. Tyrannicide, the Jesuits, and Father de Léry11. The Revolution and Mr André Dagenais12. Social Contract and Popular Sovereignty13. The Statesman as Servant14. The Argument from Authority15. The Jitters16. When the People are in Power17. Contempt of the Legislature18. The Right of Protest19. St. Thomas Agrees with Karl Marx20. For a Living Democracy

Approaches to Politics

Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Translated by Ivon Owen, and Preface written by Jacques Hebert Foreword and Introduction by Ramsay Cook

Author Information

Pierre Elliott Trudeau (1919-2000) was elected the fifteenth prime minister of Canada in 1968, remaining in office until 1979 and serving a final term from 1980 to 1984. Intellectual, charismatic, flamboyant, he is one of the seminal figures of twentieth-century Canadian political life. Before gaining the national spotlight, he was a widely published essayist and critic of Quebec's Duplessis government.

Ramsay Cook, Professor Emeritus of York University in Canada, is one of Canada's most highly regarded historians. He contributed the original introductory essay to Approaches to Politics as well as a new foreword written especially for this edition.

Approaches to Politics

Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Translated by Ivon Owen, and Preface written by Jacques Hebert Foreword and Introduction by Ramsay Cook